FEPS Talks

Rosa Balfour, Director of Carnegie Europe, joins Vassilis Ntousas, Senior International Relations Policy Advisor at FEPS, for an episode with a special focus on the EU’s global role and engagement, in light of the year that is coming to an end, and in expectation of the year that is in front of us. What were the highs and lows of 2020 for the world and the EU? What lessons can we learn from this e...

FEPS Talks featuring Professor Marek Belka, MEP and Vice-President of the S&D Group in a conversation with Dr. Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training. The announcement of the Future of Europe Conference geared a lot of enthusiasm, followed by many questions with the main one being: when would it start? While replies are pending, the Socialists and Democrats are getting ready to fac...

Professor Vivien Schmidt, Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration at Boston University exchanges with Dr. David Rinaldi, FEPS Director of Studies & Policy on the comparison between the financial crisis and the current health crisis. Particularly, they reflect on the democratic process of EU decision-making and its legitimacy, with some insights from the latest book by Prof. Schmidt on "Europe's...

Why is it that alongside the rise of antitrust in the past decades, we seen an equal rise in market concentration across the economy? Justin Nogarede, FEPS Digital Policy Adviser, and Michelle Meagher, competition lawyer and author of "Competition is Killing Us: How Big Business is Harming Our Society and Planet", explore this apparent paradox. Having looked at competition policy from a regulator’...

On the occasion of the international day for the elimination of violence against women on 25 November and as a contribution the UN 16 days of activism against gender-based violence under the global theme “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!”, Pirkko Mahlamäki (European Women’s Lobby Executive Committee member, secretary general of the Finnish Disability Forum and Executive Committee...

Professor Stephen Walt from the Harvard Kennedy School joins Vassilis Ntousas, Senior Policy Advisor at FEPS, for a timely discussion on U.S. foreign policy post-2020. What will be the impact of president Trump’s continuing refusal to concede that he lost the election on America’s international engagement and how are the domestic institutional arrangements going to affect the global agenda of the...

Mara Oldenburg, Board Member of Germany’s Youth Participation Resource Centre and Maria Freitas, FEPS Senior Policy Advisor who discuss the merits and opportunities of implementing vote at 16 so as to meaningfully include young people in democratic processes. Both experts also discuss the power of effective civic education and how it can have an long term effect in sparking political engagement am...

Esther Lynch (Deputy Secretary General, European Trade Union Confederation) and Laeticia Thissen (FEPS Gender Equality Policy Adviser) take a closer look at equal pay from an EU perspective on the occasion of EU Equal Pay Day, on the 4th of November 2020. What is it still so urgent to address the gender pay gaps in the EU in 2020? What are the direct and indirect forms of discriminations fuelling...

Dr. Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak, Polish MP "Left Coalition" Group, and Dr. Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Reasearch and Training, analyse the current situation in Poland. Thousands of people of all ages march the streets of Polish cities, towns and villages. They took to the streets, after the governing party Law and Justice politically controlled Constitutional Tribunal - for which the EU launc...

Seth Harris, acting Secretary of Labor in the administration of Barack Obama, and László Andor, FEPS Secretary General analyse in this podcast episode how US faced the unprecedent challenge of the Covid-19 crisis. Harris defines the most immediate answer as rapid and innovative, thanks to the Democrats in the Congress rather than to President Trump. They increased unemployment benefits and the eli...

The issue of care has gained much attention lately. But what do we really mean when we talk about “care”? Why is it still so undervalued in spite of its vital role? What are the main challenges faced by care workers? How does care interact with gender inequalities and what are progressive answers to overcome those inequalities? The report “Cherishing All Equally 2020: inequality and the care econo...

Elisabetta Gualmini, S&D member of the European Parliament and Professor of Bologna University, and László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, discuss in this FEPS Talks podcast episode the chance of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to be adopted in time. They also analyse the nature and the implementation of the Recovery Plan, from the perspective of progressive requirements. As member of the...

Professor Enrico Giovannini, former Italian Minister of Labour and Social Policies, is the special guest of the 50th edition of FEPS Talks. Secretary General László Andor interviews him during an online festival that commemorated the 5th anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. They elaborate on the complex meaning of sustainability and well-being, and debate about how the...

Europe is a united continent despite its differences; some of the EU member states are about the better performing countries in terms of equality, others aren’t. Professor Dorling observes that economic prosperity is actually higher in countries that are more equal, empirical evidence is clear on the matter. Then, why we still think that big differences in wages are needed to ensure high productiv...

Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly and on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the UN, Salma Bava, Professor and Jean Monnet Chair, Centre for European Studies, at J. Nehru University in New Delhi, and Hedwig Giusto, FEPS Senior Policy Advisor and editor-in-chief of the Progressive Post, discuss of the urgent need to reform an increasingly weakened multilateral system. The Covid-19 cr...

Francesca Bria, President of the Italian National Innovation Fund is the guest of this #FEPSTalks episode presented by Justin Nogarede, FEPS Digital Policy Advisor. We look at how the corona-crisis has changed the discussion around digital technology, and of course, we ask her views on the EU digital policy agenda. Given our dependency on digital technology, the lack of democratic control over dig...

It’s been 20 long days since the Presidential elections in Belarus. Their announced outcome, giving a landslide victory to the President Lukaszenko, prompted protests across the country. Thousands and thousands join in, standing up for freedom, democracy and justice. At the forefront are women, workers and young people - who want a different future for their country. Their determination is a key t...

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, former President of Malta and current President of Eurochild, is the guest of this FEPS Talks podcast episode conducted by FEPS Secretary General László Andor. The main topic of the conversation is the one she has committed to during her entire political life: how to tackle child poverty. The problem is not new, but it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak in mo...

Matteo de Bellis, researcher at International Amnesty, discusses with Hedwig Giusto, FEPS Policy Advisor on Migration the current situation for migrants and refugees in Libya and along the Central Mediterranean route, as well as the effects that the COVID19 pandemic had on them. Both experts also analyse how Libya became the receiving country of migrants and refugees during the Gaddafi era and the...

László Andor, FEPS Secretary General invited Professor Gustav Horn (member of FEPS Scientific Council as well as the Federal Board of the German SPD, former director of IMK) to discuss the recent shift in the German economic policy paradigm. The key question is how the German doctrine differs in this crisis as compared to previous one. What generates this change, and what else we might expect beyo...

Dr. Lina Gálvez Muñoz (MEP, S&D, Spain) offers her viewpoints from a feminist economics perspective in an exchange with Laeticia Thissen (FEPS Gender Equality Policy Adviser) in the backdrop of the global public attention attracted by female leaders’ role in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying key issues ranging from the importance of gender-disaggregated data to the lack of gender budgetin...

With the ongoing European Council in the background (podcast recorded on the 17th July 2020), Tomáš Petříček, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training, discuss the perspective for Europe, looking at the two-folded path to recovery. Their exchange touches upon existing hurdles, taking the audience to the kitchen of the negotiation...

Dr. Daphne Halikiopoulou, Associate Professor at the at the University of Reading, and László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, analyse the results of the latest Populism Tracker published by FEPS and Policy Solutions. They consider “ups and downs” as the main trend of recent years, and warn against using the term “populist’ as an umbrella for all the anti-establishment political parties. This is not...

This episode of FEPS Talks, featuring Kaisa Vatanen, Director of Kalevi Sorsa Foundation and Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training, will take you to Finland - a country, where governing social democracy and its leader, “millennial” prime minister Sanna Marin, pioneer ways to modernise politics. So tune in to find out first hand information from a co-chair of the drafting committee...

Dr. Maria Herczog, senior policy analyst at Institute for Human Services, Columbus, Ohio, and chair of the Family, Child, Youth Association in Budapest, Hungary, and Dr. David Rinaldi, FEPS Director of Studies and Policies, discuss about the need of improvement of the European early childcare services, especially after the social and economic effects of the COVID19 pandemic. These services are fun...